Twisted
by princess-enigma
Summary: Derek Morgan was not the type to become attached... Ever. He also swore he'd never become involved with a victim, but when the red-haired dynamite Jasmine Valentine needs rescuing from a religious zealot Derek finds he plays the knight very well indeed.
1. Prologue

Derek Morgan was a loner... At least, he tried to be. Anyone with a background like his would understand, people you care about are at best something you were at risk of losing, at worst something to be used against you. Unfortunately with a job like his there was no way he couldn't become close with his teammates, all he could do was make sure that they were the only people he let in, ones he could trust to take care of themselves, people who knew how to stay out of danger.

Naturally this kind of thinking put Derek's romantic life in shambles, that's not to say he wasn't successful with women, just that in order to keep them at arms length he had to move through them at a fairly steady pace. Despite the reputation this earned him and the constant reproval of his teammates, that was how Agent Morgan preferred it. He had a particular weakness for women, he knew how easily the ones he cared about could be used as weapons against him, the only way to protect these women was to leave them before they became too attached.

Unlike Hotch, Morgan wasn't a family man, he didn't see himself settling down, figured that one day, probably sooner rather than later, he wouldn't be fast enough, strong enough or smart enough and he'd die on the job. The best he could do to ensure this caused as little collatoral damage as possible was to leave the grieving to those who surrounded themselves with the gruesome. The team at the BAU were no strangers to death, they at least, could be trusted to handle his death well.

Derek Morgan, was not the type to become attached... Ever. 


	2. It's That Feeling

_Hey guys, here's the first proper chapter. I own nothing! _

Chapter 1:

Squinting through bleary eyes, Agent Morgan regarded his flashing phone with the trepidation one commonly gave a large spider, right before they attempted to catch it. Grunting unhappily he reached across the vast expanse of empty bed to the far side where he had left his phone, Derek Morgan always slept alone.

"Morgan" He growled into the reciever.

"Morgan it's Hotch, we've got a case, wheels up at 5:30"

"Got it" Morgan replied, stifling a yawn as he hung up the call and checked the time, '4:56am'. "Crap..."

Exactly 13 minutes later Derek swung one leg over his bike, stuffing the last of a piece of toast in his mouth with one hand and sticking the key in the ignition with the other, It was going to be a long day.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The plush interior of the luxury jet was mostly empty when Derek arrived at the airstrip, he was second there, which had to be a first as he was notoriously late for almost everything.

"Hey kid" Morgan said, ruffling Reids hair as he passed the seat Reid was napping on. He jerked awake at the contact.

"I was just resting my eyes! ...Oh Morgan, it's just you"

"Just me! Man, I'm hurt" Derek teased as he plopped himself down on the seat facing Reid, setting his booted feet up on the table between them and stretching languidly. "So, we know anything about the case, yet?"

Reid started to answer but a voice from the back of the plane interrupted him.

"12 girls between the ages of 15 and 23 have been reported missing over the past 4 days in Raleigh, North Carolina" Hotch appeared through the door as he continued "Looks like some sort of one man cult, definite religious implications at the abduction sites"

"Wait, wait, wait, you're telling me that 12 girls have gone missing, same MO and we're only just being called in now!" As much as Morgan tried to hide it, crimes against women hit him almost as hard as crimes against kids. His mumma raised him right and he couldn't stand the idea of a woman in pain.

"8 of the 12 girls were reported missing in the last 24 hours, this guy has been laying in wait for months now waiting to get all of these girls in one sting operation, the local PD didn't know they needed us until about 4 hours ago." Hotch sat down heavily in the chair across the aisle from Reid and Morgan, pinching the bridge of his nose between his forefinger and thumb before he continued, handing out files to Morgan and Reid as he spoke "We have 12 victims and judging by this guys MO, we'd know if there were more. He's been taking them steadily for the past 4 days but everything's been quiet for the last 4 hours, local police are being tentatively hopeful that as he's got a religious fixation he needed a set number of girls and these 12 will be the only ones who go missing."

As Hotch spoke, Reid and Morgan thumbed quietly through the photos of 12 exceptionally pretty girls. Morgans stomach rolled as he looked into the eyes of 12 smiling girls, one in particular stood out to him, the back of the photograph read 'Jasmine Valentine. 21. Taken, Park on Southside 6:27pm 17/8/11. Personal Trainer.' Looking back at the front Morgan saw the reasons why she had been a target. Wide, innocent brown eyes sparkled past a heavy fringe as she smiled and even in the picture her hair glowed, the red colour reminding him almost exactly of the colour of a Red Velvet Cupcake. Her body language was open, trusting, naive, she was one of those people who believed in the good in the world, that much he was convinced, even from this one small image. She was petite, tiny compared to the gangling man she was hugging in the picture. Morgan felt a stab of jealousy at the unknown man before he mentally shook himself, '_She's a victim in an abduction case, she might not even be alive when we get there, what's gotten into you, D? You know she's off limits!'._ Working regularly with scum who liked to abduct pretty girls, Morgan had often found himself initially attracted to girls in the photos they were given at the start of cases similar to this one, having seen many of those women mutilated beyond recall he had stopped letting himself get attached a long time ago. Confident that he would be able to forget this ridiculous feeling he tuned back into the conversation, startled to realize that somehow while he was thinking, the rest of the team had joined them.

With a jolt he realised that he wasn't the only one whose mind had been on Jasmine, she was the current topic of conversation.

"So, how come we have such an exact time, date and location for Jasmine Valentine but not for the other girls?" Reid was asking. Derek silently berated himself for that slip-up, '_How did I not notice that? Get your head in the game D, or it could be lights out not only for Jasmine but also for the other 11 girls'_

"We have a witness who called it in, we knew about it before the note was found which is how we found out about the other 11 girls" Hotch replied, talking quickly.

"Note?" J.J asked, her eyebrows furrowing slightly as she regarded Hotch.

"Yes, there is a copy in your notes, last sheet." Morgan dug his copy out as Hotch continued "Identical notes were left on the front doors of all of the girls homes."

"Fear not, your daughter is with God's disciple" Reid read aloud, frowning as he considered the words.

"So this is how we know our guy is religious" Morgan stated, looking from Hotch to Reid "Reid, give me some statistics man"

"Only about 15% of religious abductions end with murder during the first 36 hours, most don't kill for at least 3 - 4 days" The knot in Morgans stomach eased slightly '_I'm going soft' _he thought to himself as the plane started it's descent into Raleigh's airport.

_Oooooooh, bit of a set-up of where this story's going. RnR! 3_


	3. Piece By Piece

_Okayyyyyy, running with my inspiration and getting this chapter and hopefully another done by tonight. Enjoy!_

_[I own nothing...]_

Chapter 2:

Jasmine Valentines bedroom looked just like every outgoing, well-liked young-womans bedroom should look. Morgan stood alone in it's centre, Jasmines housemate had not come past the end of the hall. Morgans eye was caught almost immediately by a collage of photo's over the bed. Moving closer he pored over photos of Jasmine, with her friends, alone, laughing, running in some sort of marathon, in various poses, in a gym and one in particular that caught his eye was one of her at what must have been a costume party, dressed as Catwoman from Batman. On impulse agent Morgan tugged it off the wall and slid it into an inner pocket of his jacket.

"Veronica says that Jasmine was well liked, social and always in the thick of things, she doesn't know of anyone who'd ever want to hurt her. Also Jasmine is a fervent Agnostic who is very much against organised religion." Reid announced his presence loudly, obviously too consumed by his thoughts to notice Derek jump guiltily away from the wall. "Jasmine had more clients than she had time for, but her housemate says she was on good terms with everyone she trained, even the ones she had to turn away."

"Didn't Hotch say she was taken from a park?" Morgan asked, tearing his eyes away from the photos and eyeing Spencer.

"Yeah, you think she was with a client when she was taken?"

Maybe... Or maybe it was a client who took her."

Taking a seat at Jasmines desk Morgan stuck his phone to his ear, listening to the dial tone as he called Garcia.

"Database of all things brilliant, speak and be heard." Penelope's chirpy voice never failed to bring a smile to Morgans face.

"Hey Babygirl, I need you to pull Jasmine Valentine's bank accounts and get me a list of any payments she recieved in the last 6 months. Also see if there are any gyms or health clubs she was affiliated with in the area."

"No problemo, gorgeous. You'll know as soon as I do."

_Soooo... Thoughts? Everyone happy with how quickly the investigation is moving? _

"That's my girl, thank-you mamma." Morgan hung up the call and handed Reid Jasmines laptop. "See if you can find her day-planner, maybe she kept her client details on there." meanwhile he opened the purple diary on the desk and idly skimmed through the pages until he found the entries from 2 weeks previously. "Man, her housemate wasn't kidding, Jasmines schedule is jam-packed. Check this out: Monday August 6th, 5:30am: 45 minute sesh; Brian Murphy. 6:30am: 30 minute sesh; Amanda Freeman. 7:15am: 60 minute sesh; Jeremy Clark. 8:30am: Cardio-Kickbox Frogs Fitness. 9:30am: 30 minute sesh; Maya Fitzpatrick. 10:15am: Nutritional consult; Brian Murphy. It just goes on and on like this." Morgan read out loud, the disbelief clear on his face.

"Wait a second, did you say Brian Murphy was scheduled twice on that one day? Is he in there a lot?" Reid asked, frowning slightly.

Derek skimmed the next few pages with an increasing sense of excitement. "Reid, man, this Murphy guy is in here at least every 3 days without fail."

"I'll call Garcia" Reid whipped out his phone while Morgan skirted around him, looking for Jasmines housemate.

"Veronica?" The slight brunette looked around curiously as Morgan called to her. "Have you ever heard Jasmine refer to a client named, Brian..."

"Murphy, of course." Veronica finished for Derek. "He's got a crush on Jas, she felt bad about it but she made it clear that she didn't date clients and when he said he understood I convinced her that there was no reason not to keep taking him as a client. She was a little unsure but he pays good money for what she does."

"Did he ever send her gifts? Come to the house? Call her unneccesarily?"

"Oh god yes, well he used to. After she talked to him about her limits he backed off but it's not unusual to come home and there be chocolates or flowers waiting for her with little notes... Wait, why are you asking me this? You think Brian took Jas?" Veronicas face slowly drained of colour and she sat down heavily on the couch.

"It is a possibility. Veronica do you have somewhere you can go, just until the end of this case?"

"You think he'll come HERE!" Veronica stood back up, eyes wide with fear.

"We don't know for sure, but just to be safe it's best that you don't stay here. Now, do you have any of the notes that Jasmine recieved?" Veronica nodded, leaning over to the coffee table and sliding the drawer open to reveal a short stack of folded A4 sheets.

"Why have you kept them?" Reid asked wandering into the room, tucking his notebook into his back pocket.

"We, uhmmm, me and Jasmines friends, we used to tease her about them... It was funny..." Veronica looked a little ill as she regarded the notes, handing them to Morgan.

"Thanks for your help, Veronica. And remember what I said about staying with friends until we get this under control." Morgan and Reid left the apartment, Morgan alreadfy on the phone to Hotch. "Hotch, Morgan. I think we have a suspect..." 


	4. Getting Close

_Sorry this took me a little while, lovers._

_None of it's mineeeee..._

Chapter 3

Jasmine Valentine had never heard such complete silence in all her life. At least thats what it seemed like as she first awoke. Focusing now she could hear small rustling movements and laboured breathing past her own throbbing her eyes gingerly, Jasmine took in her surroundings with squinted eyes, through the semi-darkness she could just make out the insides of a large cement cell, scattered with at least 10 huddled figures, all of whom seemed to be unconcious.

'_How long have I been here?' _Jasmine thought to herself groggily. All she could remember was being in the park, her client, he had turned on her, she'd been so shocked that all of her self defense training had gone out the window. In a matter of seconds she'd been unloaded, half-unconcious, into the back seat of his car. After that she couldn't remember anything... Or could she?

Something was coming back, floating up through the clouds of her delirium. Right after she'd been dumped here, stomping footsteps that had filled her with a confusing feeling of dread. Hands all over her body, an awful sense of violation. Jasmine felt the nausea rising up inside of her, unable to contain it, she rolled to her side and threw up, the meagre results alerting her to the fact that it had been some time since she had last eaten.

"Vomiting, your cleansing is under way then."

That voice... Jasmine knew that voice. A rising sense of horror engulfed her as she rolled over. "No..."

"...morgan... MORGAN!" The door to the bathroom slammed open outside his cubicle. Derek let his head thud lightly against the wall behind him, sighing now that his solitude had been disturbed. "Morgan, I know you're in here." Sometimes Reid's perceptiveness was more hindrance than help..

"Yeah, okay, okay, I'm coming." Morgan rose from the closed lid of the toilet and unlatched the door wearily. "What's your hurry, man?"

"We have a lead." The younger agents face glowed with excitement, the keys to the car already jingling in his hand. "J.J said to take you along, something about you needing to get out of this box."

Sometimes Morgan wondered whether J.J shouldn't be a profiler too, she was super perceptive. "Okay man, lets get outta here, where we going?"

"Brian Murphy's apartment..." Derek's stomach contracted a little, if this wasn't their guy then they had no other leads, but if they were right, and he was the guy they were looking for, then the team was closing in fast. '_I just hope we catch him in time' _Morgan thought to himself as he swung into the drivers seat of the SUV.

Brian Murphy's apartment was a 45 minute drive from the station, not far from the park where Jasmine was abducted from. Derek rapped sharply on the door, hand straying to his gun belt. His thumb hooked on the safety loop of his holster he called out "Brian Murphy! Open up!" Derek looked over his shoulder, catching Reids eye and nodding sharply, his gun came out of his holster then, fitting snugly into his wide palm; backing up slightly Derek charged the door, pushing one foot sharply against the door busting it wide open. "FBI!" Reid and Morgan quickly and efficiently cleared the apartment, finding it empty.

The last room Derek opened had to be Murphy's bedroom, the unmade bed sat below a crucifix encrusted wall, on the opposite wall was a desk scattered with ancient books, scattered papers and torn artworks. The desk wasn't what caught Dereks attention and made his stomach churn though, above the desk was a chilling collage constructed of 12 images of 12 hauntingly beautiful women. Drawing a photo from the inner pocket of his jacket, Morgan matched it to it's twin on the wall. Jasmine Valentine smiled out at her from two places on the wall.

"Reid! Get Hotch on the phone... This is our guy." 

_Let me know how you're liking it? _


	5. Fighting Back

'Vomiting, your cleansing is underway then...'

Jasmine didn't need to see his face to identify Brian, as she turned her face slowly to look up at his smug face peering from between heavy steel mesh her eyes swam through what she thought might have been a concussion.

'Soon, my Jasmine, you will be the crowning jewel in the sacrifice to our lord.'

As he turned away from the cramped cell a high pitched keening punctuated his sentence, in Brian's right hand he had the hair of a crawling blonde woman that he dragged down the hall behind him, the slapping of her hands on the cold concrete punctuated only by the heavy stomps of Brian's thick soles boots.

Panic clawed its way into Jasmines throat, it was only pride that kept her from crying out, she had never believed in cowing to terrorists and that wouldn't change now no matter how terrified she was. No, not Jasmine Valentine, this cruel bastard would pay for what he had done to her and to the other women she could hear moaning and crying quietly in the cell around her, all she needed was a plan and the first thing she needed was to get her hands free.

"Brian Murphy, 23 years old, his parents were both active members of his church group until just before his 11th birthday when his mother was found torn to pieces in the family home." Garcias face puckered as the file images of the closed case flashed up on her screen "During the inquest that followed it turned out Brian's father had been beating his wife and son for years in the name of his god, little Brian was quoted in his interviews as saying 'we had the devil inside of us, daddy was trying to help'... Ugh, nope, I'm emailing it to all of your cells, you can read this tale of woe yourselves, I'll be looking at videos of kittens until you need me, Garcia out."

The team sat around a desk in their makeshift command centre, silently scrolling through the files on their iPads until Morgan abruptly broke the silence.

"Why was this kid not watched?! Bed-wetting, fanatical father, childhood abuse, he has all the markers and he just slipped through?!"

"He was handed over to the custody of his aunt," Hotch said, not taking his eyes off of the pad he was scrolling through "She was active in the church and the community, had children of her own, she was an obvious choice."

"But when the markers of his psychopathy became apparent she kept it quiet" Rossi spoke up for the first time, standing to pace the length of the short boardroom as he spoke, this case was under his skin too, Morgan noted with a jolt. "She covered it up, increased her worship and activated the prayer tree" his tone was bitter now.

"You can't know that.." Hotch started to speak.

"Of course I can, how many cases just like this one have we seen Hotch?" Rossi stood still now, staring at the victim board, the 12 still photos now joined by crime scene photos of a blonde woman, uncovered from a shallow grave just outside the city limits, buried in the same pose as Jesus' crucifixion with a deep red crucifix opening her from neck to navel and dividing her ribs from side to side. "How many more will we have to see before we figure out how to stop this before it starts?!"

Jasmine was the only woman in the cell who seemed alert enough to notice the dwindling numbers around her, whatever he was keeping the girls drugged with was in the food he had been giving them, while the other women ravenously fell upon any scraps he threw their way Jasmine was carefully avoiding it, chewing small amounts while he watched and spitting the wet mush into the corner behind her when he turned away. The clawing hunger in her stomach turned to dull hunger pangs, keeping her alert and on edge but even so, she needed to sleep.

When next she awoke it was the scraping of the heavy door that woke her, heavy footsteps walked away from her and there was one less girl in the cell with her, fear gripped her as she looked around the cell, there were only four women left including her; as she gazed around the cell a pair of honey brown eyes looked back at her, jolting Jasmine into alertness.

"I was watching you, spitting your food out, it took me a while but I finally figure out why you were doing it, he's drugging us isn't he?"

The girls voice was hoarse and croaky but Jasmine could hear the steel beneath her words, this woman would be an ally in escaping this place.

"I have a plan." Jasmine whispered back, surprised that her voice worked at all. The honey brown eyes hardened across the cell from her, "Just tell me what to do."


	6. The End of the Beginning

"Hotch! HOTCH!" Morgan pounded through the police station searching out his furrow-browed commanding officer. "Morgan, what is it?!" Hotch appeared from around the corner of the tiny station kitchenette, a coffee pot steaming in his left hand. "Garcia, she found an abandoned camp site that used to be used by the church that Murphy was a part of, his aunt is on the title deeds along with a deceased pastor." Morgans eyes were wild, he hadn't slept for days, in Hotch's opinion he was far too close to the case but he couldn't afford to lose one of his best agents when they were expecting another body any minute. "Take Reid and Rossi and get out there ASAP, call for backup if you need it." In his usual business-like manner Hotch left it at that and disappeared back into the kitchenette. Morgan wasted no time in rounding up Reid and Rossi and piling them into the SUV.

The tenseness in the cell was palpable, Jasmine and her partner who she later learned was named Fiona had spent the long, cold night whispering frantically before working through each other's bonds, taking turns biting and chewing at the rough rope that bound their hands behind their backs and now, at what Jasmine judged to be around 7:30am, their hands were free though that was disguised by loose loops of the rope wrapped around their wrists. Now was a waiting game, Jasmine knew that in Brian's arrogance he believed the drugged women to be beneath him and did not carry a weapon into the cell, so while Fiona distracted him by kicking at his knees and tender places Jasmine would launch her attack, wrapping the rope in her hands around Brian's throat and strangling him to death if that's what it took to keep the remaining victims alive. Originally the plan had been to sleep in shifts, regaining what strength they could before their captor returned, but seeing Fiona's honeyed eyes wide and unblinking across the cell, Jasmine knew they would both be too wired to get any rest in the hours before he was due to return.

Miles of highway disappeared beneath the wheels of the black SUV as Morgan coaxed more and more speed out of the engine, the three men in the car were all painfully aware that if the unsub kept to his schedule there would be another woman dead by his hands late this afternoon. Slowly the ETA on the GPS ticked down until Morgan pulled off the highway and up a dirt road skidding to a halt outside the biggest of a series of log cabins. As Morgan climbed out of the vehicle he noticed a pile of offcut building materials to the left of the big building, "Looks like someone's been doing some renovations" Rossi said in his trademark sarcasm, pulling his sidearm free from his belt. "Steel wire, cement powder, PVC piping, those are all things you'd need to build an underground dungeon, and at such a forgotten property you wouldn't even need to worry about planning permissions" Reid piped up, smoothing his hair nervously as they moved carefully towards the main complex. Morgan knocked on the door, stepping back sharply as it swung wide on it's hinges, "looks like someone was pretty confident they wouldn't get caught" gesturing for the other two men to split up as they entered, Derek strode through the entrance into the dingy interior of the building, straining his eyes against the gloom.

At the far end of the gloomy corridor Jasmine could just hear the faint stirrings of something sinister approaching leaning over she gently nudged Fiona who jerked into alertness, her brown eyes almost black with panic. Jasmine bobbed her head toward the tunnel to indicate that their captor approached. At that moment the dull clang of the heavy door at the end of the tunnel announced Brian's closeness, Jasmine braced her body, feeling Fiona do the same with hers, for their plan to be a success Jasmine had to feign a drug addled stupor while Fiona waited and watched for the now familiar menacing figure to appear at the door of their cell.

Upstairs Morgan had quickly found a trap door in the floor of the basement, it had a padlock on it so before he could shoot it off he needed Rossi and Reid beside him so they could storm the cellar as efficiently as possible once they alerted Brian to their presence. "Reid, Rossi" he whispered into his walkie-talkie "meet me in the basement, I found our way down." Within seconds his teammates were beside him in the dark basement, Derek trusted the men beside him to do their jobs without instruction so without further adieu he shot once, twice at the heavy padlock on the floor of the room, sending the broken lock skittering away across the room in two pieces.

In a practiced manoeuvre Brian had the cage open in moments, striding confidently into the cell, pausing at a skinny blonde in the far-left hand corner, as he reached down to grasp her hair Fiona launched her attack, a furious bundle of claws and kicks that Brian struggled to keep up with as he was so shocked. Just as he grabbed onto one of Fiona's fierce clawed hands two clear gunshots rang and echoed out from above and to the right of the cell, Jasmine hadn't seen down that end and wouldn't have even known there was an entryway there if there weren't multiple pairs of heavy bootsteps thundering down and unseen staircase very nearby.

"BRIAN MURPHY, FBI, HANDS WHERE I CAN SEE THEM!"

Though the origin of the voice wasn't visible Brian needed no further evidence of the truth of these words, shoving Fiona viciously against the wall he turned and ran in the opposite direction from the voices gaining closer.

"OH NO YOU DONT YOU BASTARD! " Jasmine leapt to her feet and charged after him down the hall, through the metallic doors at the end. She came to an abrupt halt and struggled to control her gag reflex at the stink of rotten meat in the surgical lab she found there, she didn't dwell on it long as across the room Brian stared at her through a broken window just long enough to whisper: "My Jasmine, I knew you'd follow me... Don't worry, I'll be back for you..." As he disappeared from the window strong hands on her upper arms broke Jasmine from her stillness, stressed, scared and shocked she turned, kicking and punching every ounce of flesh she could reach.

"Jasmine, JASMINE! Calm down baby, you're safe, you're ok, it's over, it's over." The big, dark man who had her wrists pulled her in close, squeezing her to his wide, firm chest in an embrace Jasmine suspected was supposed to be both calming and restraining. Slowly her adrenaline dulled and her anxiety and fatigue crushed in around her leaving her sobbing and hyperventilating in his arms.

"It's ok, I got you, I got you." Morgan had never been so relieved to see a victim alive and well, he knew it was inappropriate but he never wanted to let the fierce, shaking woman out of his sight.


End file.
